software to rip VCDs

[freespit]

hi, i've bought some VCDs and i want to copy the movies to my hard disk. i don't know how and i don't know what kind of software i need to use.. what i did though, was browsed through the folders of the VCDs and i copy / pasted the movie to my computer's hard disk.. it plays properly, there's no real problem at all.. it's just that the files are DAT files.. and i want them to be in a good video format, like AVI.. can someone tell me how i can rip them properly, and if there's any freeware out there that i can use?

[Decay]

best form for watching the movies is keeping in dat format... Not to compress them...

[Dragonbssj]

Hi there freespit

Converting VCD (DAT) to AVI is simple in my case.

But try using this software (tho not free) trial.

http://www.riverpast.com/en/support/tutorials/convert/dat/avi.php

River Past Video Cleaner

Video Cleaner
http://www.riverpast.com/en/images/download.gif (http://download.riverpast.com/download/videocleaner_wmf_setup.exe) (With WMF runtime, 6.1 MB)
http://www.riverpast.com/en/images/download.gif (http://download.riverpast.com/download/videocleaner_setup.exe) (Without WMF runtime, 2.3 MB)

[freespit]

Oh.. well thanks, anyway, to the both of you.. :) i would get that riverpast cleaner thing, except that i'll still have to download directx and i'm on dial-up. plus, it seems that i'll have to give credit card info and all, and i don't have any of that so.. yeah, it's useless.. thanks again though.

[oracle128]

DAT to MPEG (http://www.aoamedia.com/Convert_DAT_to_MPEG.htm)
DAT to AVI (http://www.aoamedia.com/Convert_DAT_to_AVI.htm)

VCDs are just MPEG-1 movies though (that is, movies usually found with the .mpeg or .mpg extension). So, theoretically, you should be able to simply change the extension from .dat to .mpeg or .mpg. I don't have any VCDs to test that out on, but give it a go, it will only take a second and you can always change it back if it doesn't work.

[freespit]

Well.. how can I change the file extension??

[oracle128]

You will need to enable showing the file extension:
Control Panel->Folder Options->View->uncheck the box "Hide extensions for known file types".
You can change the file extension simply by renaming the file normally, by just changing the ".dat" to ".mpg". The file will need to be copied to the hard drive before you can rename it.

[freespit]

Thanks. :)